Southampton chief exec Martin Semmens has explained the sacking of Ralph Hasenhuttl.

The Austrian was axed this month and replaced by former Luton manager Nathan Jones.

Semmens told the Athletic: “When I first started working with Ralph, he said you have to evolve.

"So you either change the manager, coaches or the players. We got to a point where at the end of last season it wasn't working.

“We needed to make a change in that environment and there were many paths we could have gone down."

During the summer, Saints parted ways with three first-team coaches in Dave Watson, Craig Fleming and Kelvin Davis.

In doing so, they hired current lead coach Ruben Selles, Alex Clapham – who has since departed the club – and promoted under-18s coach Carl Martin.

“For clarity, it was Ralph's decision (to change the backroom team), not ours, and we felt it worked," Semmens added.

“The change in coaches didn't undermine him — he actually loved it. But it's possible that we tried to change the way we play, the way we coached and we probably didn't get that 100 per cent right."

He also said: “I spoke to him yesterday and he's sitting at home with his family knowing he did a great job and is happy. He was caring about what we were going to do next — he's that type of guy.

“We didn't make the change with Ralph based on recent results — the decision was not made that recently — we made it based on what we think we need for the future.

“There's not a crack in my mind that doesn't think it was the right time for Ralph."